Abstract
The most iconic experimental tests of general relativity for weak gravitational fields are presented. Those include the classic 20th century observations of the the perihelion precession and the deflection of light by massive objects such as the sun as well as the 21st century detection of gravitational waves.
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Notes
- 1.
We recommend reading chapter 27 in The Role of Gravitation in Physics, Report from the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference. C. M. DeWitt and D. Rickles (eds.), where R. P. Feynmann discusses an early version of a gravitational wave detector based on (5.72).
- 2.
There is no phase shift here because we neglect friction.
- 3.
Note that here \(\epsilon \) is indeed 4Â km and not 1200 Â km.
- 4.
A discussion of this and numerous other aspect of gravitational waves, their generation and detection can be found here—https://cosmolearning.org/courses/overview-of-gravitational-wave-science-400/.
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Hentschke, R., Hölbling, C. (2020). Classical Tests of General Relativity. In: A Short Course in General Relativity and Cosmology. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46384-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46384-7_5
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